http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/15/markets/thebuzz/index.htmNEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- This is going to be a hectic week for followers of initial public offerings. Ten companies are currently on tap to make their debut.
If you didn't know any better, you'd think it was 1998 all over again -- except for one thing. There aren't any major tech companies on this week's docket.
General Motors, of course, is grabbing all the headlines. The automaker is tentatively set to return to the public markets (GM ticker and all) on Thursday.
The government is selling a portion of the stake it acquired in GM as part of its bailout. The hope is that a leaner-and-meaner post-bankruptcy GM will eventually generate a profit -- or at the very least, a smaller loss -- for taxpayers.
But GM is not the only well-known firm that's going to test the public markets. Caesars Entertainment, the casino company formerly known as Harrah's Entertainment, is set to start trading this week too. Ditto for big consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton and brokerage firm LPL Financial.
But none of those companies are your classic IPO candidates -- hot, rapidly growing upstarts backed by venture capital firms. Instead, Caesars, Booz Allen Hamilton and LPL all count private equity firms as their main investors.
Caesar's, back when it was still known as Harrah's, was bought in 2008 by Apollo Management and TPG. One of the main investors in Booz Allen Hamilton is the Carlyle Group. And LPL is majority-owned by Hellman & Friedman and TPG.
This is an interesting trend that isn't expected to change any time soon. If you look at a list of some of the more high-profile firms that have already filed to go public, you won't find sexy Silicon Valley darlings like Facebook, Twitter, Zynga and LinkedIn.
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None of those firms are expected to file for an IPO until next year, at the very earliest. Many think it won't be until 2012 or 2013 that any of social networking's Big Four become publicly traded companies.
Experts say it's a sign of the times. With the economy still merely chugging along as opposed to solidly growing, the best candidates to go public are companies that are turnaround stories, not hot growth stocks.
